Everything you need to know: H2Oi moves to Atlantic City

A screenshot from the more than 30 min compiliation by Alex Digital highlighting the unofficial H2Oi Ocean City event

Ocean City, Maryland’s Mayor announced that H2Oi’s organizer has agreed to a deal with The Showboat in Atlantic City,NJ. Rumor is the actual meet will be held in a parking garage near the Boardwalk.

Even though the official H2Oi meetup was held more than 13 miles away from Ocean City, Maryland for the past 18 years, it looks like Jay Shoup, H2Oi’s organizer, has decided to move the event 100 miles away to a casino/resort in Atlantic City. According to The Dispatch in their article that’s since gone viral among the greater VW community earlier yesterday (Apr. 26,2018), Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan showed up to the regularly scheduled Motorized Task Force meeting to announce that, to his understanding, Showboat Atlantic City, struck a deal with H2Oi’s organizer.

According to Rick Meehan,

“It is my understanding that a contract has been signed with Showboat in Atlantic City to move the official event to that location,” he said. “The move would make sense because the Showboat can offer a large venue that we do not have in Ocean City to accommodate the growing number of participants who attend this event. It could also be a more centrally located venue considering the long distances some participants travel to get to Ocean City.”

He goes on further to say that

“I want to thank the promoter for recognizing Ocean City is not compatible with this event,” he said. “I don’t think he ever intended that event to grow like it did with all of the tag-alongs. I think they believe the other site will be more compatible for their event. I certainly hope so and I wish them all the best.”

This latest news comes off the tail end of a brutal statement from Jay Shoup he posted onto H2Oi.com earlier last week in which he criticizes the local city government for not coming up with a proper solution on their own, one where they didn’t have to move their otherwise official peaceful meetup. In his statement, Shoup lists multiple initiatives on his own dime that Ocean City, MD failed to recognize, despite those attendees causing all the trouble not being associated with his official event.

Despite H2Oi moving, the problem remains just like it did last year. Although ticketing fines of up to $1,000 can technically be issued in Ocean City, Maryland thanks to the Maryland Senate passing SB 872 earlier last week this won’t totally prevent people from still showing up. Just look at this informal poll posted shortly after this announcement below.

Right now, there’s no new information on the official H2Oi event including dates, where you can register, and what you can expect.

Rumor has it that, while the official hotel will be the Showboat, the real show will be held at a parking garage near the Boardwalk. A quick search on Google Maps and my guess would be this one right here, it’s the closest one to the beach! And that rooftop area would make for a nice hangout. Again. Just rumor.

As for the unofficial H2Oi meetups that spontaneously happen, the City itself, Ocean City, is still open that last weekend in September. You can’t close a city. If you show up, that’s on you though.